BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 



H.R.H. Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands when the latter received 

 an honorary doctorate in 1951. This homage on the part of the Tech- 

 nological University, to which Kluyver felt so deeply attached, must 

 have been very dear to him, just as was another mark of distinction, 

 which the Government evinced when it donated an authentic Leeu- 

 wenhoek microscope to the Technological University on the occasion 

 of its semi-centennial. 



It is not surprising that Kluyver often began a conference with a 

 plaintive 'Life is complicated!' Nor is it astonishing that now and then 

 he felt that his pupils did not receive their due, which made him limit 

 the time for his own rest to the barest minimum. In this way he kept 

 a firm grasp on the activities of his students and staff. And, although 

 the personal contacts with the students may have appeared somewhat 

 scanty in comparison with the situation in the thirties, it nevertheless 

 remains true that they were both more numerous and more intensive 

 than those which the students were apt to experience elsewhere in the 

 university. Besides, the previously mentioned tendency to make his 

 pupils partners in the manifold problems that occupied him added 

 further to their unique educational opportunities. 



It goes almost without saying that, under the circumstances sketch- 

 ed above, Kluyver's amazing physical endurance could not stand up 

 against the demands of his mental activities. For a number of years 

 prior to his death he had been suffering from angina pectoris, but 

 nothing could induce him to spare himself. He continued to smoke in- 

 cessantly, albeit that he occasionally shifted to Egyptian cigarettes and 

 limited himself to only one cigar per day. His perseverance was mag- 

 nificently evident in 1953 when, during a rough crossing on his way 

 to London, he and his chair tumbled down a couple of iron stair- 

 cases on board ship. He suffered serious injuries, from which he did 

 not recover till many weeks afterwards. Nonetheless, on the day after 

 his arrival, and covered with bandages, he delivered the Leeuwen- 

 hoek Lecture before the Royal Society. A member of the audience 

 has described this feat as 'one of the most heroic performances' he had 

 ever witnessed. 



That in spite of all this he could keep up this extremely busy life 

 for so long was largely owing to the care with which his wife sur- 

 rounded him. When she took ill a shadow fell over Kluyver and the 

 laboratory, for she too had occupied an important place there. During 



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